4th Madejski brother from Albion earns his Eagle
Provided photos: The four Madejski brothers from Albion all now have attained their Eagle rank in Boy Scouts. The brothers include, from left: Greg, Giovanni, Joe and James. They are pictured at Joe’s Court of Honor celebration today in the Lyceum at Holy Family Parish.
Joe follows brothers, Greg, James and Giovanni
ALBION – Joe Madejski is now an Eagle Scout, the fourth of the Madejski brothers to earn the highest rank in Scouting.
Madejski had his Court of Honor celebration and ceremony today. His brothers – Greg, James and Giovanni – attended the event, their first time all together in more than a year. (They also wanted to see Joe perform as Terk, one of the lead roles, in Albion’s musical, Tarzan.)
Greg, 28, was the first to reach the Eagle Scout milestone, followed by James, 27, and the Giovanni, 24.
The Madejskis have been active in Scouting in Albion for about two decades. Besides the four brothers, their father Tom has been Scoutmaster and is a past president of the Iroquois Trail Council. The boys’ mother, Sandra, was a den mother and has served in numerous roles for Troop 164, currently the advancement chairwoman.
Jackie Madejski, the brothers’ sister, has been a supporter of her brothers. She worked at Dittmer, a Boy Scout Camp in Phelps. She is pictured with James, Joe, Giovanni and Greg.
Jackie Madejski, the boys’ sister, also had a role in Boy Scouts, working at Camp Dittmer, a Scout camp in Phelps.
Scouting has been a good family activity, Mrs. Madejski said. She enjoyed meeting so many other Scouts and their families.
Tom Madejski said Scouts teaches responsibility, gradually giving the boys more and more freedom.
“It gives them a chance to get comfortable being uncomfortable,” Madejski said. “It’s a chance to be on their own.”
The four brothers – and sister – have taken varied career paths.
Greg is a graduate student at the University of Rochester, working in biomedical engineering. For his Eagle project, he put in a garden and did landscaping by Medina Memorial Hospital, a garden that still remains by the hospital.
James earned a degree in dramatic writing from SUNY Purchase and lives in Los Angeles, working in the film industry in script development.
For his Eagle project, he did a survey for the Medical Society of the State of New York.
“It was the first time in a major way I had to research something I didn’t know,” James recalled at the Madejski home in Eagle Harbor. “In the film industry, you communicate with people you don’t normally communicate with.”
Giovanni earned a degree in industrial and systems engineering and is currently a ski instructor in Colorado, embracing the outsdoors life that is a big part of Scouting. Giovanni has been a ski instructor for a year.
He said there is a strong fraternity among the Eagle Scouts, a mutual respect for the hard work and commitment to earn the rank.
He is pleased to welcome his youngest brother in the group.
“We’re all completionists,” Giovanni said about the brothers.
For his project, Giovanni designed, raised money and led the construction effort for a patio on the back end of the Eastern Orleans Community Center in Holley.
(Jackie Madejski, 22, earned a theater degree at the Catholic University in Washington, D.C. She graduated about a year ago and is working in theater in DC.)
Joe said he is grateful for Scouting, for the chance to experience the outdoors, and meet so many friends. For his Eagle project, he made a prosthetic hand for a woman who was a patient at Medina Memorial Hospital. Joe used a 3D printer to make the prosthetic. The project was also intended to give Medina Memorial some exposure to 3D printers for prosthetics.
Joe designed the prosthetic and used the printer at the UR where Greg is working as a grad student.
Joe will soon decide where to attend college to pursue a degree in biochemical engineering. A university in Chicago is in the running. If Joe goes there, the brothers said that would put one of them in four different time zones.
